Because You Wear A Hat
by It'sJustADream
Summary: -Do you know why they call me Hatter?- Hatter's past before Alice fell through the Looking Glass. People are disappearing and Wonderland is changing into something new and frightening, Hatter must do what he can to survive, but who was he before he was Hatter?
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own Alice or (unfortunately) Hatter or any of the other characters mentioned, let me know what you think, I love reviews no matter how long or short :)**

Chapter One:

The beautiful brunette woman tucked the giggling bundle that was her five year old son into bed. She knew that it was pointless to try and get him to sleep, he was always just so hyper and awake all of the time, it was exhausting yet always rewarding in the long run. He reached up grabbing hands to a dusty top hat that sat almost forgotten about on the top shelf above his bed. His mother followed his gaze and pulled it down. Blowing the dust off of the top and smiling at it.

"This was your great granddad's hat." She smiled, "He was the Hatter to the Queen." She placed the hat on top of her son's head and laughed as his tiny face disappeared underneath it. His head lifted towards the sky, confused as to why he could no longer see anything before his mother's gentle hands, lifted the hat and propped it behind his ears so that it sat, far too big but at least he could see now. "I'll tell you a bit about him if you like." The small boy nodded over-enthusiastically causing the hat to fall over his face once more. His mother laughed and his head appeared rather self consciously from beneath it before he placed it on his pillow beside him.

"This was a long time ago mind, I was only a little girl myself when I met him and he was so entertaining for a child to be around, entirely bonkers, mad as a box of frogs really, but apparently he wasn't always like that." The small boy snuggled down under his blankets as his mother weaved her magnificent tale about a strange little girl called Alice, fearless, brave and incredibly curious and not that much older than he was himself. She told him about his great grandfather with his strange hats and mad tea parties with his friends and how this strange Alice girl had wandered in and befriended him. The boy's eyes were wide with awe as she told him how this Alice had brought down the whole house of cards, she was just one girl but she had made a difference, a big difference. And unknowingly, the beautiful brunette woman had set an idea in motion inside of her son, that one person _can_ make a difference.

_**Five years later...**_

"David!" His mother called up the stairs, "It's time to get up."

The ten year old groggily lifted his head from his pillow and stretched, letting the morning sunshine soak in through his window before swinging his legs over the side and making his way downstairs. His mother was waiting at the kitchen counter, busily attaching two sides of what would undoubtedly become another patchwork quilt.

"Morning." He smiled and started pouring himself some cereal.

"Good morning. I have a present for you." She smiled and reached bellow the counter, reappearing with a hat box.

"What's this?" he asked, taking it from her and removing the lid. Inside was a black hat, simple in design with a dark blue ribbon around it. He lifted it with a smile and placed it on top of his head- it fit perfectly but pushed his fringe too far into his eyes.

"Hmm, here, try this." His mother twisted his fringe so that flicked upwards over his hat, "Very handsome." She smiled.

"Thank you, I love it!" he adjusted his hat before grinning at his mother.

"My little Hatter David." She mused before coughing in a way that shattered everything in the world for the ten year old. It was the kind of cough that sucked all of the happiness out of the room and made you painfully aware of the present and what may lie ahead in the future.

Neither of them acknowledged the cough, because that would be like confirming the illness and neither of them were ready for that just yet. Instead David changed the subject.

"Did you sell much of the goat's cheese at the market yesterday?" he asked,

"Some, but not as much as usual." She sighed, "It's the same with everyone at the market. People aren't buying food anymore, something strange is happening."

"What? Why wouldn't people buy food? Everyone has to eat, right?" he questioned, as far as he knew, if you didn't eat, you died, so how could people not want to buy food. In the past they had done really well at the market.

"There's not even as many people on the streets anymore." She paused her sentence with another throaty cough before attaching another square of fabric to her patchwork and continuing, "They're building something as well, up on the hill, some sort of palace or something for the Hearts family."

The boy rolled his eyes at the mention of the royals, "Don't they own enough of Wonderland as it is? They already wiped out all of the knights." This was something that David had been told at school as he wasn't born when this had happened, although it hadn't stopped him from making a sword out of cardboard and tin foil and attacking any inanimate object that he could find that could possibly 'pose a threat' to him and his mother when he was younger.

"I know, but this is something new. I've heard talk of it in the town, they say it's going to be a casino or something."

"What's a casino?"

"It's a sort of game place for adults. Where they can play card games and gamble away all of their hard earned money. You can also win quite a bit from taking risks, but the odds are rarely in your favour. I went to one once, a long time ago, but the people of Wonderland are poor enough as it is with the way the Queen keeps raising the taxes, how she thinks anyone's going to have any money to blow in a casino is beyond me." The woman lifted her arms to emphasize her point and dropped her patchwork into a wicker bin reserved especially for this purpose before sighing, "But you needn't worry about these kind of things my little Hatter." She pushed his hat forward playfully, "Everything's going to be alright." Her words may have been more comforting if they weren't followed by her coughing up a handful of blood, "I'm fine."

"You're not fine though, mum. We need the money from the market to..."

"Stop. I'm fine." She kissed him on his forehead, "You better get going to school or you'll be late." The boy begrudgingly gathered up his school things and made his way out of the front door and into the street.

From their apartment he could see the construction of the casino his mother was talking about, starting to take place way over across the water. He thought again of what his mother had said, about how the people didn't have the money to spend in a casino these days, and he tried to figure out what its purpose could be.

He supposed it could serve as a home to the Royal family, as at the moment they lived in a grand, old fashioned building that Kings and Queens of old had lived in, and so maybe the Casino was for their own personal use, but then again, they had most of the money in Wonderland, what fun could they have from playing against themselves? David couldn't conceive of any way in which it would work. Something different had to be going on, they must have some other plans for it that they weren't sharing with the rest of Wonderland and he was determined to find out.

Looking all around him to make sure that he wasn't being watched, David silently slipped away from the crowds of school children and jumped straight off of the side and safely onto the ledge below that lipped out slightly. It was something that he had done a thousand times before, so often in fact that he could do it without looking, confident in the fact that he would land on the ledge. From here it was a slight climb down an old drainpipe to the water's edge. Only one problem now faced him, how was he to get across to the other side of the water to see what was going on. He was a decent swimmer, but not strong enough to cross that much of a body of water by himself. He was too young and poor to buy a boat either.

His better judgement told him to leave it; he would already be in enough trouble from skipping school and adding theft to that wasn't exactly going to do him any favours. Besides, the thought of his mother's face when she found out what he had done, for what? Idle curiosity? It wasn't worth it and so he was just about to turn around and shimmy back up the old drainpipe when a noise caught his attention somewhere further down the water's edge.

Young David hid himself within the nearby bushes and watched as a terrified girl wearing strange clothes stumbled around by the water's edge, mumbling to herself about smiles without faces and how she couldn't remember her name. She seemed to be asking her reflection in the water furiously to tell her what her name was and grew ever angrier when it didn't reply. After a while she collapsed from exhaustion or god knows what else and David had just about gathered enough bravery to go to her to see if she was okay when a large scarab-shaped plane hovered over their heads and a claw reached down and pulled her up and into the depths of the craft somewhere. Two other wooden crates hung from the thing, swinging as it took off again with a great awful sound. He watched as it carried them over the water and to the half-built Casino on the other side. He knew something was going on. In his head, he had already started to calculate a plan of how he was going to get over there and find out what they were up to. He would return after dark when he wouldn't be seen.

For now though, he had to run a low profile and get to school, and so he slipped silently and unnoticed, back into the great throngs of children making their way into the school building just as the bell was ringing, signifying the start of lessons.

It wasn't until half way through his first lesson though that he realized the three empty seats of his classmates, sure, Lewis was often absent, but Posy and Dodge were never off. He elbowed his friend in the seat beside him and gestured silently to their empty seats, not wanting to get told off by his teacher for talking.

"Dunno. They're not in their apartment either, I knocked on Dodge's door yesterday but no one was there. Looked like they hadn't been for a while." He whispered. Something was definitely going on and David was determined to find out what.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Under the cover of nightfall, David pulled on his old dirty boots and put his coat on over his pyjamas and set off into the darkness with nothing but a torch to guide him. It was trickier navigating safely around the ledges at night but not impossible and soon enough he found himself at the water's edge once more. This time he noticed a small wooden dock not far from him with a speed boat tethered to it. Unfastening the ropes with nimble fingers he climbed inside and pulled at the motor, it was tricky and noisy and nothing seemed to be happening,

"There must be a knack to these sorts of things." He muttered to himself, pausing before pulling harder than before. The motor sprang to life noisily and David looked around himself cautiously, seeing if he had caught the attention of the boat's owner or anyone else out for a moonlit stroll that might catch his theft in action.

After a moment or so, happy in the knowledge that no one was running at him, he made his way steering the boat across the water. The keys he had found at the bottom of the boat, the careless owner had clearly not cared that much about it, or trusted others enough to think that they wouldn't steal it, or perhaps he had other things on his mind and dropped them by accident? Whatever it was, it had benefitted David whose knowledge of hotwiring was sketchy and would have mostly consisted of trial and error.

All too soon he had found himself at the bank of the other side of the river looking up at what would in the next few months become something life changing, David thought. The bottom few floors were almost completed but nowhere near being hospitable to live in yet, which is what confused David as he saw the flickering lights from the bottom level windows. Treading carefully, he made his way up to the windows and peered inside. He could see what he only presumed were scientists by the many brightly coloured liquids in flasks and bottles in front of them. One was rather large around the middle with the beginning of a moustache and a turtleneck jumper and the other taller and slimmer with hair that was starting to grey. From the distorted view through the bottles and vials, David could swear that there was another person behind them, sitting in a chair that was raised from the ground, their feet were all that he could see clearly, bare and flat to the raised ground as if they were glued to it. The man in the chair let out a great howl of laughter at something that David couldn't see behind him and coloured liquid dripped into a flask connected to many tubes and filters beneath his feet.

"Now then Walrus, let's see if this works then shall we?" the taller man said to his larger friend who merely nodded in reply. The man lifted what appeared to be a perfume bottle of some kind and sprayed it at the man sitting in a chair who seemed to freeze mid-laugh and stare idly outwards, yet liquid continued to trickle into the container beneath him as an idle smile stretched across his face.

"That's better, I can't deal with the amount of noise the Oysters make."

"Oysters?" David repeated to himself in confusion. He took a step to the side to get a better look at the man and saw that he was strapped to the chair. Something else struck him about the man, he was wearing strange clothes, nothing like anyone from Wonderland would wear, they reminded him of the clothes the woman he had seen earlier that day had been wearing, so they must have been from the same place. At school he had learnt about the Knights of old that were wiped out a long time ago, he had learnt how they had mined a stone that was so powerful it could transform an ordinary Looking Glass into a portal to another world that existed alongside their own, but was very different. David wondered if these people could have been from that world he had heard of, and if so, who had brought them here and why?

He watched for half an hour longer, trying to make sense of what he was seeing when his foot slipped from its resting place on top of a pile of bricks causing a loud crash and David heard the tall man tell the man named Walrus to see what it was. David had no other option but to run, he should have run back to his boat and escaped back to his side of the water and ran all the way back home, but he wasn't ready to call it a night yet, not when there was more to figure out and so he took to the cover of the forest that surrounded the place, hoping to be concealed for a while before he could return and eavesdrop some more.

However his plan hadn't worked as well as he had hoped as it was winter and all of the trees were bare and offered very little protection or concealment. He couldn't just wait in the first few rows of trees like he had hoped, he had to go deeper in to try not to be seen by the slow walking Walrus man and his friend.

He was ten minutes into the forest when he heard it. The call of a beast that his imagination assigned a terrifying mental image to that was undoubtedly worse than the reality of it. The Jabberwock called out once more, its feet stomping ever closer, it could hear and most likely smell him and was approaching rapidly.

Fearing for his life, he scuttled to his feet and ran back in the way that he had just come and straight to his boat, still ready and waiting for his quick escape, however the Walrus man was waiting in the doorway to the half built building and was pointing a gun in David's direction. He ducked down low and narrowly avoided one bullet and it was only the sudden resurrection of the boat, taking off across the water, that saved him from the rest of them. Whatever they were doing with the people from the other world, it wasn't something they wanted to advertise just yet.

He returned the boat just as he had promised that he would and docked again on the other side of the water. He saw Walrus standing on the dock too far away to see or do him any harm. This man gave him the creeps with his silent, imposing nature, but it was more than that. Walrus followed the other man who referred to him as a friend, and to anyone else, it would seem that the taller man was the leader of the two and Walrus was nothing but a follower. But David had seen the way Walrus watched the other man, less like a friend or even a leader, but more like a prisoner on day release that he had to keep watch of. Walrus wasn't the man's friend. He was his warden. And the worst part was that the taller man didn't even know it. David wondered if Walrus would take his _friend_ out as soon as he had outlived his usefulness. It was inevitable really.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

David gently stroked the ebony face of his mother's horse and fed her an apple from the nearby tree. He could hear the argument escalating from within his house already and was in no hurry to go inside just yet. Instead he leaned against one of his oldest friends and looked up at the stars. It was a clear night tonight and the cold night's air pricked him like a thorn. He stood staring as his mind tried to find some kind of reasonable explanation to all that he had saw tonight.

"Something's going on." He muttered to the horse, "The Hearts are up to something." The horse neighed almost in response and David patted her side affectionately, "I know, I know. I can't go around accusing the royal family when I don't know what's going on. I'll get killed. But they're up to something. I just know it."

The sound of breaking glass from inside broke through David's concentration and he led the horse to her stable and made his way inside with a sigh.

"At last, the little prince has decided to grace us with his presence has he?" his father sneered, swinging a half broken whiskey bottle around as if not yet noticing that the other half was missing.

"Go to your room David, there's a good boy." His mother urged. She was crouched on the floor, trying desperately to mop up the broken glass and whiskey.

"No. He's not going anywhere. Where have you been, boy?" he demanded,

"Out." David shrugged and side-stepped past him.

"Not so fast." He grabbed a handful of David's shirt and pulled him backwards, "You treat me with some respect, boy."

"I will when I think that you deserve it." He pulled himself free and bent down to help his mother.

"How dare you speak to me like that!" he roared,

"Bill, don't. You're drunk." His mother stood between them before coughing into her handkerchief.

"Do you see what you're doing, boy? You're killing your mother." There was genuine concern in his eyes as he looked at his wife, "You should be here after school to help her."

"I'm sorry." He looked to the floor,

"It's okay; I can manage on my own. I'm here to look after you, not the other way around." She stroked David's face gently,

"I was at the casino." He confessed,

"Where?" his father demanded, his eyes bulging,

"The casino that they're building over the water. There's something not right about it."

"David, you don't need to worry yourself about things like that. It's nothing to do with us." His mother spoke gently.

"But something's going on, mum!" he protested, "I saw something..."

"I don't care what you saw, boy. You hear me? You don't go talking about the Hearts or meddling in their business."

"But dad..."

"Don't but me, boy. Listen to me. People go missing that meddle with the Hearts. Stay out of it. You'll get this whole family into trouble if you don't stay away."

"But they had someone strapped to a chair!" David blurted.

"I don't want to hear about it. You're making up stories, boy." He scolded but David could see that he didn't believe his own words. "Get to bed."

"Do as he says, please." His mother urged softly.

"But you believe me, don't you?" he pleaded,

"Of course I do, now get to bed." Her sentence was punctuated with a throaty cough that broke David's will and made him climb the stairs to his room in silence. He stared up at the crack in the ceiling above his bed; the night's sky was just about visible through it if he closed one of his eyes.

"One day," he muttered to himself, "People will believe me. They'll come to _me_ for information." He tried to fight sleep but all too soon it found him and he drifted off peacefully into a deep, deep sleep.

The next few days saw less and less people on the streets and in schools and work. Just overnight, whole families would vanish, things packed, apartments empty. No clue as to where they had gone or why. People started to get on edge. The school's closed down in the weeks that followed, libraries boarded up, book stalls in the market up turned, the books burnt in town centres with no explanation as to why.

"I'm home!" David called as he meandered into their little house. Most of his friends lived in apartments closer into the city but David and his family lived in a small house close to the edge. It had been a part of Wonderland generations ago, when the city wasn't so built up. Most of his friends laughed about it, but it served David well, he liked the clean smell of the green grass that surrounded his house. So much better than the concrete that his friends had.

"We've got to go." His mother bounded down the stairs with armfuls of clothes that she threw into a suitcase.

"Why? What's dad done now?" he sighed,

"What? No, it's not your father. It's the Hearts. We have to go."

"But I didn't tell anyone what I saw!" He insisted, "I swear I didn't." She took a moment to stroke his jaw line delicately; he looked hurt by the idea that he had done something wrong.

"It wasn't you, my love. The Hearts are burning books."

"I saw. I don't understand why though. The school's closed too."

"She fears knowledge, this is bad. We have to go." She continued with her frenzied packing.

"But why? It's not like we pose any threat to them." David stated,

"Everyone is a threat. If we don't conform to her idea of how the world works, well, it won't be pretty. Be a good boy and go and pack your things. You father's waiting to meet us. The others, the ones who got out early, they're in hiding, we can join them." David took the stairs two at a time and flung the most important things he could find into his bag. All of a sudden a crash arose from downstairs followed by his mother's scream. He rushed to the top of the stairs but her eyes told him to stay hidden. She was being held up on either side by men dressed in black suits. Another man, a taller man, who couldn't have been older than twenty strolled through the door, fixing his cuffs as he did so.

"So, are you gonna tell me where the others are hiding?" he asked in a funny accent. It was like nothing David had ever heard before.

"I don't know." She tried to keep her voice strong but it broke with a cough.

"Don't play dumb with us." One of the suits shook her violently, "Word is that you were next to join them."

"I don't know where you heard that from."

"So you're not planning on running away?" the man with the funny accent asked, eyeing up the suitcases. "What's this then? Last minute holiday?"

"Something like that."

"We spoke to your husband. He folded like a cheap suit, told us everything. Only he doesn't know where it is you're going exactly. Said only you know."

Anger bubbled inside of David. His own father had betrayed them, put his mother in danger. He had to do something but he was next to useless. He was just a boy.

"No worry. We have ways to make you talk." He pulled a small glass vile from his jacket pocket. The two men held her mouth open whilst the third poured the colourless liquid into her mouth, it dribbled down her chin as she tried to spit it out, but it was too late.

"What is that?" she asked, for a moment her face seemed more serene before it crumbled in agony and she tried to claw at her head,

"Honesty. It's still in trials though, a few bugs to sort out before we can give it to the masses, but it does the trick. Now, tell us where the fugitives are hiding."

"They're..."

"Yes?"

"They're in the..."

"NO!" roared David, charging down the stairs and pushing the men backwards. Anger bubbled inside of him stronger than ever before and he pulled his right fist back and punched the first suited man he could see in his chest. He fell backwards, clutching his ribs in agony.

"He's broken my ribs."

"What? He's like ten. Get him!" David propped his mother up under her arm and tried to get her out of the building as fast as he could. She clutched onto his shoulder and continued to cough up blood all down David's side, but he ignored it. He had to get her away.

"Stop." She panted, shaking her head in resignation, "You have to go without me." She ordered. David looked back to the house, they were only a few feet from it, the three suited men could easily catch up to them but they were preoccupied at the moment setting fire to their house.

"What was that stuff they gave you?" he asked in a panic, she closed her eyes and breathed heavily, "Was it a poison?"

"No." She breathed,

"Then what?"

"Something...new." she wheezed, coughing up another handful of blood. "Find your father."

"Like hell." He snorted, "No wait, I will find him, just so I can kill him myself. He gave us up, mum."

"Please. For me. I don't want you to be alone."

"I won't be alone. I've got you." His smile faded though with his mother's pained look. She shook her head slowly and sat on the damp, dirty ground. "Come on, mum. We've got to keep moving."

"I can't."

"Yes you can." He stated, "Give me your hand and I'll pull you up."

"You need...you need to run, David." She was finding it increasingly harder to hold her eyelids open.

"No, mum. Not without you." He knelt beside her and gently pushed her flyaway hair from her face.

"Don't argue with me David, there's a good boy." She managed a weak smile and cupped his face, "My little Hatter." She smiled, remembering her toddler's face peering from underneath her grandfather's hat. "Hatter." She mused before her breathing became heavier. Tears washing down his face, David lay his head on her chest and she tried her hardest to wrap her arms around him. She knew this day would come eventually, she'd been getting weaker for weeks, but she had hoped that she could have had time to get him to safety first. "The library." She breathed,

"What?"

"The great...library."

"What about it?" he looked up at his mother's face but it was still, her chest had stopped moving also. "Mum?" he urged, gently shaking her shoulder, but she wasn't moving. She had gone.

"Twinkle, twinkle little bat. How I wonder where you're at." The taller of the three men sang to himself as he passed them by.

"You killed her!" he cried,

"No, we just tried to find the truth. We were going to let her live, for a while at least. You on the other hand, are a loose end. And I don't like loose ends." He clicked his fingers and the two flanking suits lunged forwards but David was too quick for them. He hated to leave his mother there like that but he didn't have much choice. He had to find a safe place and he figured that his mother's last words to him were a kind of clue. One that he had to figure out quickly.


End file.
